I tend to give President Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt.
Democrats and the media constantly attack him — and he does his share of attacking — but every controversy is dialed up to 11.
Regarding the Jeffrey Epstein situation, I had always assumed they were good friends — as was Bill Clinton — but believed that if there was something genuinely terrible about this president, it would have surfaced long ago.
Besides, if Trump had done something wrong, these wealthy individuals wouldn’t be foolish enough to leave evidence.
WHITE HOUSE CRITICIZES DEMS’ ‘BAD-FAITH’ EPSTEIN DOC RELEASE AS DEMAND FOR FILES GROWS
When the news about the birthday message to Epstein emerged, I assumed, like many others, including some conservative colleagues, that it was authentic. Sending such a message in 2003, at the request of Epstein’s girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, even with its suggestive scribble, didn’t seem like a major issue. The problem was Trump’s persistent denial that it was fake, a stance he maintains today.
However, the latest collection of Epstein emails, released yesterday by House Oversight panel Democrats, are — what’s the right term? — concerning.
At the very least, the previously undisclosed correspondence suggests that Trump was aware of Epstein’s predatory behavior well before he claimed to have ended their friendship.
Regarding the White House’s claim that there’s nothing significant here and that it proves Trump did nothing wrong, consider this.
If House Republicans obtained documents proving that President Obama knew Jeffrey Epstein was a pedophile and may have had relations with one of the young victims, wouldn’t 99% of them be loudly decrying what a horrific scandal it was?
And wouldn’t most Democrats, even if they criticized the conduct, be looking for ways to justify it?
The president mentioned the thousands of documents and said Democrats are “trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown.”
Reports indicate that the president called Rep. Lauren Boebert and attempted to contact Rep. Nancy Mace to prevent the House from reaching 218 votes for a discharge petition — bypassing the leadership to bring legislation to the floor.
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Speaker Mike Johnson delayed seating newly elected Arizona Rep. Adelita Grijalva for 50 days for the overtly partisan reason that she pledged to be the 218th vote. CNN reports that two more GOP reps now say they will join the effort.
“Doesn’t it show transparency that members of the Trump administration are willing to brief members of Congress whenever they please?” said press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “Doesn’t that show our level of transparency? Doesn’t it show the level of transparency when we are willing to sit down with members of Congress and address their concerns?”
Democrats, according to Trump, are “trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown.”
By now, you’ve probably seen the most damaging quotes.
In the most accusatory email, Epstein stated, “VICTIM spent hours at my house,” with Trump, referring to the woman who later accused Epstein of sexually abusing her during her teenage years.
That name was redacted in the 20,000 released documents. However, outlets like the Washington Post identified her as Virginia Giuffre, who worked as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago before Epstein’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, recruited her, which Trump has cited as the reason for his split from Epstein. Giuffre died by suicide earlier this year.
However, her alleged involvement may also provide some exonerating evidence. Giuffre consistently maintained that she recalled meeting Trump once and that he was simply friendly. She reiterated this in a posthumous memoir published last month by her family.
We may never determine whether she feared making allegations against a former president or, later, a potential second-term one.
In a 2011 email to Maxwell, Epstein wrote, “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is [Trump.]”
BIOGRAPHER URGED EPSTEIN TO BASH TRUMP FOR ‘POLITICAL COVER’ IN NEWLY RELEASED EMAILS
In a 2019 email to journalist Michael Wolff, Epstein said of Trump that “of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.” Epstein committed suicide in prison later that year.
Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, was transferred to a minimum-security prison after being interviewed by Trump’s deputy attorney general.
Wolff had a remarkable exchange of emails with Epstein after he says he declined the prisoner’s offer to write his biography in 2015, when Trump initially ran for president. Wolff was advising Epstein on what to say about the candidate in an upcoming CNN interview.
“I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff wrote. “If [Trump] says he hasn’t been on the plane or at the house, then that gives you valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially benefits a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt.”
Wolff, whom I’ve known for years, has experienced a significant decline in credibility following recent books about Trump.
Wolff hasn’t explained why he withheld this information after Epstein’s suicide, as death typically releases an interviewer from any off-the-record commitments in journalism.
Here’s one more about a 2018 exchange with Obama’s former White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler, regarding a New York Times op-ed advocating for Trump’s impeachment. Epstein wrote, “[Y]ou see, I know how dirty [D]onald is.”
Unsurprisingly, there has been a barrage of criticism from Democrats directed at the president.
Let’s take a broader perspective. Trump’s reputation as a womanizer, particularly with the allegations involving Stormy Daniels and hush money, is well-known, but the possibility of sex with an underage minor falls into a much darker category.
Furthermore, two of the key individuals involved in the case have died.
How long will the Epstein saga continue? What will happen if and when emails involving Democrats and Epstein are released?
Based on our limited experience with impeachment, alleged misconduct from well over a decade ago, involving an officeholder who was a private citizen at the time, is generally not pursued.
Therefore, there may come a point when this unresolved commotion gives way to new controversies surrounding the 47th president.
I can state one thing definitively. The explosive documents completely overshadowed the event that occurred a few hours later: the House vote to end the federal government shutdown after 43 painful days.
